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Friday, August 8, 2008

Did you notice that Jehova's Witnesses always travel in pairs? If one person starts questioning their brainwashing, their partner keeps their thoughts in line. If necessary, a deviant can be reported to their superiors.

I lived in an apartment building where two Mormons on a "mission" were living. They always traveled in pairs.

If there were a solitary cult member, there is a possibility that they would meet someone who would convince them to start thinking for themselves. Cults need their members to always travel in pairs, so that the members can always keep each other under surveillance.

Similarly, policemen always travel in pairs. I used to think it was for mutual self-defense; if one policeman was injured, the other could call for assistance. Policemen are a type of cult. Policemen travel in pairs for the same reason Jehova's Witnesses travel in pairs. Policemen are members of a cult, and cultists can't be allowed to start thinking for themselves. If a policeman started thinking independently, his partner would correct him or report him to his superiors.

1 comment:

Zargon
said...

The more I think about it, the more this makes sense.

On top of keeping potentially free thinkers in line, this is also a "beneficial" practice even when both enforcers are throughly brainwashed. It's pretty well established that groups make more extreme judgments than individuals, because responsibility is shared. By putting enforcers in pairs, the people at the top ensure that on average, that group judgment skew is applied to enforcing their decrees.

It also gives enforcers another leg up on the rest of us in terms of physical power. For example, those few videos recently of cops perpetrating unprovoked attacks against bicyclists in front of huge crowds. Would the enforcer have done that if he didn't have another hired goon right next to him, who he knew would automatically assist him in his attack and help intimidate the witnesses to prevent them from doing anything about the attack while it was taking place? Maybe. Maybe not.

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For personal finance, my most frequently visited site is Yahoo Finance. Yahoo Finance has the best system for watching your stock quotes during the day. I also like the Motley Fool. Both of these websites encourage you to do independent thinking about finance.

My favorite discount online broker is Vanguard. They are not the cheapest commission-wise, but their customer service has been excellent. Plus, they give a high credit interest rate on the cash portion of your account.

Mises, Rothbard, and Austrian Economics

The school of "Austrian Economics" advocates credit-based money instead of debt-based money. There are two separate websites, www.mises.org and www.mises.net. These philosophies are a precursor to agorism. However, they still hold out false hope that the people who control the government can be convinced to switch to a fair monetary system. They fall short of the correct conclusion that government itself is the problem.

The Mises and Austrian school is still a pro-State theory of economics. They say "government should adopt a sound monetary policy instead of an unsound monetary policy". They fall short of the truth, which is "Who needs a government?"

Agorism and Anarcho-Capitalism

The primary source most commonly cited is agorism.info. Agorism.info has good introductory material, but I'm already looking for more advanced topics. I also found TOLFA interesting. The Molinari Institute has a lot of interesting links.

The source with the most advanced material on agorism is Kevin Carson's The Mutualist Blog.

This link on the History of Money has a lot of interesting bits on how bankers have controlled the world's money supply for hundreds of years or longer. Unlike most other sources, it is very short and to the point. However, their recommended solution falls short of true agorism.

Freedomain is another good read. He doesn't update his blog often, but he has a lot of good stuff posted in the past.

Kevin Carson's Mutualist Blog - This is a great source. He is tough to read at times, but his content is great. He's the best source on agorism I've seen. I like to take his topics and present them in simpler language. He updates his blog sporadically, but he has a lot of great content. It's also worth reading his other books and articles, which are available from his mutualist.org website. I also like the way Kevin Carson frequently links back to his favorite older posts. Kevin Carson's Shared Items is also worth reading; it's a list of posts from other blogs that he finds interesting.

Kung-Fu Monkey. This blog is written by someone who works as a writer in the entertainment industry, which explains the high quality of writing. He sounds like a closet agorist, although he hasn't specifically mentioned that philosophy. This post on the Extrapolated Everyday Bull**** Comparison has promoted Kung-Fu Monkey from my hitlist to my "read regularly" list.

Redpillguy's Blog - His blog is relatively new, so it's hard to judge. He doesn't really update his blog that often. On the other hand, he frequently cites my content, and that's certainly the sort of thing I appreciate.

Tranarchism is another new blog. It's too soon to judge the content. On the other hand, anyone who heavily cites my stuff can't be all bad. It's too infrequently updated.

Wally Conger's Blog is another good read. However, he really has two separate blogs mixed together. He has a lot of good stuff on agorism and libertarianism. However, he also likes to talk about his favorite movies and TV shows a lot.

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These blogs have some interesting content, but they don't make it into my regular reading rotation. If they improved their content or improved their posting frequency, then they would be in my regular reading list. I check back occasionally, and on a slow day I might read them.

Bill Rempel - He talks about finance and trading. He really dislikes the Federal Reserve. I'm not sure if he's come all the way to agorism yet, but perhaps he can be coaxed. He's guilty of my #1 blog pet peeve: A PARTIAL RSS FEED!

Bored Zhwazi - Has some nice content, but it really isn't updated that often. It's worth checking back once every month or two.